Cute sites to visit for the week:

I ran across so many cool sites this week, I just had to share. The first one is Design Sponge. They have tips, DIY, before&after photos, podcasts and a whole bunch of other info that is so very helpful. I could spend hours browsing their site.
The podcast they have for this week is-oh my goodness!- peanutbutter and milk chocolate chunk cookies. I can't wait to try this out.

The next websites both made me chuckle - and who wouldn't need a little laugh every once in a while. First Kawaii Not- cute Japan inspired comics and paraphenalia with a twist. Check out the single celled organism on the left. If you become an instant fan, you can subscribe to the post or visit the store an get yourself a cute tshirt or some stickers. X-mas is right around the corner, maybe there is something perfect for your teenage niece, sister or daughter...

The last site is a place with awesome t-shirts. Not only are they designed well, but they are hilarious. I wish I could add a whole lot more pictures, but to keep it short, here is just one. ..lol

Comissions

I have been working on two comissions in the past weeks and am finally on the home stretch. It has been a nice change of pace. Working with pen and ink is very similar to creating my etchings, so it always makes me feel good about what I am doing.

The first commission was a portrait of a dog for a friend of mine. His old spaniel had just passed away and he wanted to remember her. The portrait has two views of Mattie and the milky way in the distance. I also framed the print with a black frame and double mat. When working on portraits, I normally work from photos. For multiple animals, I normally play around with photoshop to get a nice composition before I start drawing. The second step is to get the basic values down with pencil, and third I just fill it in with the pen. I use a simple old school pen (like a quill) with liquid ink in a well.

The other commission is on a totally different note. It is an illustration for a young writer for his fantasy novels. I have so excited to work with him. The finished illustrations will be sold as prints with the short story at the Shiny Squirrel Boutique. I'll post more on this as soon as I finish the illustration. Garr, it has been such a busy semester! There are so many things to do and every week when I think I have cleared enough time, a bunch more things pop up! Is this the way every one else's life is too? I have so many patterns that I am dying to try out, but simply have no time.

I blogged about our move previously (husband-military-all that jazz). That also changed, so that instead of moving next summer to Germany, we are already leaving in Jan-Feb next year to Ft Lewis, Washinton. As soon as the semester and teaching are over, I get to start packing boxes. I think I might have to have a sale to get rid of some of the fabrics I have accumulated...

Junk in da Trunk indie craft fair

I had a great time at the Junk in da Trunk craft fair this weekend. I am tired, but happy with the turnout. I received much positive feedback for both my crafty things and also prints that I had out.


Here are some pictures from the show:
Top- people setting up. Middle- the little jewelry/card holder I wrote about in the previous post. (I had cards on the other side that does not show.)
Bottom- my humble table.


I still have a lot of things left over, that I will be posting on etsy little by little. As soon as my short art appreciation class ends at the beginning of October, I will have more time to sew. I have several patterns that I have lying around, and have not had time to try out yet. I'll keep you posted.

I made great friends with Doris and Christi in the next booth. They were from the Kobo Gallery, Savannah. Christi Reiterman makes some very beautiful jewelry and Doris Grieder does all kinds of wonderful fibercrafts. Definitely a place to visit if you are in Savannah.

Jewelry stand/nic nac holder

I am going to be attending an indie craft fair at the Desotorow Gallery in Savannah this weekend. Getting ready for the fair, I made a folding stand to hold jewelry and note cards on. I figured while I was at it, I would document the process, so someone else might take advantage of the idea as well. I used some left over Amy Butler fabric for it. Check out the instructable here. Since I just made it, I dont have the best pictures of it yet, but I'll be sure to add some next week after the fair. You could take the idea and run with it, either just make one panel and hang it on the wall, or make three, four or five panes and make a folding screen type of display.

Inspired by Nature

I had someone comment on our bedroom wall mural before, so I decided to post more proper pictures of it here. On the left you can see the corner of the bedroom. It is painted 1yd high with a darker green and the rest of the room with a light greenblue. I used the left over darker green and some brown paint to paint a tree and other nature subjects on the walls to make it look like we were sleepig in a forest. The chair is from a yard sale, and the rest of the furniture is from Ikea's Malm series.

The way I got the basic designs of the trees on the walls, was with a small projector and pencil. The rest of it was more or less improvised. The trees also continue in the other corners of the room. In the picture on the right is a simple mural of a bird in a tree, from the opposite wall in the bedroom. I also sketched that on the wall first with a projector and pencil, and then just painted the lines in. It was originally a photo I found online. I just traced the outline silhouette.

The boring foyer also got a mural. I had seen a similar corner painting in an old magazine years ago, and had been dying to paint one of my own in my first house. When we moved in, I picked the entry way, and just doubled the tree on both sides of the door. The painting makes the entry much more cozy to come in now.

Todays inspiration...

I wanted to introduce two awesome artists in my entry today. Both of them are artists from Europe, Sanna Annukka, Finnish/English and Angie Lewin from the UK. If you haven't been able to discern yet, I like things that have a retro 70's or so look to them. I fell in love with the prints of both of these artists immediately.

Sanna Annukka is an illustrator and printmaker. She finds her inpiration from nature and folklore. She uses bright colors and geometric simplified designs in her work. Her screenprints and lithographs are available from her online store. In addition to graphic design, Sanna Annukka is collaborating with design companies, like Marimekko, for graphics for fabrics.

Angie Levin is also a printmaker working with linocuts, wood engraving and collage. Her colors a more muted compard to Sanna Annukka, but just as delicious. Many of her prints feature simplified and designy flowers and meadows in greens and blues.

I wish I had a collection of both of these artists prints. You can buy her prints straight from her website or from art galleries listed on the site as well. Fabrics designed by Angie can be found at St.Judes.

Started with a sketch- Finished Ferrett

I finished 4 of these little fellas finally. They will be for sale at the Shiny Squirrel Boutique next month. They were so fun to make. I will be sure to include this pattern in my upcoming book on animal patterns.

It started with a sketch

I have been working on a design for a little ferret/otter for Jessica at the Shiny Squirrel Boutique. Since there has been a lot of positive feedback for my plush designs, I thought I would post some pics of the design process. I do a lot of thinking of different designs for a while before I even grap a pencil. Then I'll do some loose sketches to figure out the final shape of the critter. Sometimes I'll draw out pattern pieces to figure out how things would work out 3-dimensionally. For this little critter, I just drew out a pattern in size right off the bat at sewed up a mock up of the design. (picture below)

After that, I made a couple of other versions with different heads, but I ended up liking the first version better. I have yet to make one in a "nice" fabric. I hope to do that maybe next week.

Stay tuned!

New Livingroom

Whew, I just got back from a 2 1/2 week vacation from visiting family in Finland (my parents farm on the left). I had a great time! For the first week we took some time to fix up our summer house. We put up new wallpaper and paneling, and new laminate floors over the old yellow wood floors. I wanted to paint them, but my mother insisted with the laminate... Go figure. I hope that next summer I can paint the yellow wood floors in the foyer gray. Talking about painted wood floors, I came upon two cute things on the web today. one of them is this cute floor decal, called Tango. What a whimsical way to brighten up a room. I think I could also paint something similar. The white painted floors in the other picture look so lovely and crisp. I would love to get this feel at our summer house as well. The rest of Yvestown's photo's are worth taking a look as well. Back to the summer house- after new walls and floors were put in we shopped around for some fabric for drapes and sofa cushins to liven up the space. We got a steal with this happy yellow-red-green stripe fabrick being 70% off! Sewing drapes and pillows was a nice little vacation project. We hung up some white shelves from ikea (you can barely see it on the bottom right picture, but they are there). My mother put up some of the antique items on the shelves and we hung up some old pictures to give some character. I think it all turned out very nice, bright and summery. A nice change from the dingy old place.

Weekender Travel Bag

This week I finished my first try at the Weekender bag by Amy Butler. It seems that I have been in an Amy Butler mania last couple of months. I think I got it out of my system now. ;)

The weekender bag was a fun project. I decided to make it without the cording around the edges due to the fact that I sewed the zipper to the top and lining at the same time and sewing everything toggether was pretty bulky. I used a wool twill fabric remnant for the outside, with a little leaf motif from the leftover Butler fabric from the last tunic. It gave the boring fabric a spark!

Some other modifications I did was make the handles a little longer, about 55" and sew around them two times to secure them to the bag. (In the picture the handle has three rows of stitches since I first sewed just the handle by itself.) Instead of just sewing back and forth at the top, I made an "x", also in the picture.

Another modification was a pocket for a water bottle on one of the sides instead of a flat pocket. I figure on trips that will come in handy as well. The bag is really nice and roomy, and has the same pockets all around on the inside as well. I am looking forward to seeing how it travels. TIP: I think if I make the bag again, I would make the inside pockets 3" taller, so that they would come up closer to the top. I imagine the bag being filled with bulky items, and it would seem that the less tal pockets would get all jumbled up.

For the interlining I just used the thickest lining I got from Walmart, so it is not as stiff as maybe with Timtex like used in the pattern. The lining is a brown cotton fabric, the same as for the handles. I used some of the plastic craft mesh used for needlepoint for the bottom and it worked out fine. I stitched it together 2 ply before inserting. I also sewed in between the outside and lining so that you can't see it. The bag is not as neat as in some other pictures I've seen, but it works for me. I can't wait to use it!

Lotus tunic revamped

Ok, so I could not live with poofy sleeves on the Lotus tunic and had to rip them out today. I finished the seams as istructed in her pattern by just sewing binding around the edges. So now it is sleeveless, and I like it much better. I felt that the sleeves were too dressy, and poofy and they felt restricting on my arm. So now all is well, and I relly love the dress/ tunic. Let me know which one you like more.

Amy Butler Lotus Tunic

So I finally had some time and made the Lotus tunic by Amy Butler. (I've been buying the patterns from Ebay for the best prices.) I had to wait until July so that the local quilting store that carries AB fabrics restocked her fabrics. I got 2 yards of both moss martini and olive garden maze. I wanted to make the Lotus tunic from one, and another Anna tunic from the other, and then what ever I have extra something cool from that as well...

The Lotus pattern was easy to follow, I would recommend making a muslin trial one first and then make the "real" one. I did that, but slacked off a little, so I still had to make modifications after sewing it together. The top was too big, so I took it in on the sides and added little pleats on the top middle in the front, and it ended up turning just fine. Be careful with measuring the top around your bust. It was too loose for me, so if I leaned forward, or crossed my arms, I had a big gaping bag infront of me. The small pleats took care of that. I think I might also like it if it was less open in the front for everyday use.

I am not sure about the sleeves. When I sewed them on, they were sticking out a lot, so I added elastic inside the binding on the edge, and now they are tolerable. I think if I make the pattern again, I will either make the sleeves smaller or then just make a sleeveless one. Not a big fan of poofy sleeves.

I read some complaints from others who have made the pattern, about the positioning of the belt loops (too low). You can't see the belt in the picture that they sell the pattern with, because it gets tied only in the back. I think the belt loops were at a good height for me.

While working on the project, I finally got fed up trying to fit clothes and figuring out any modifications on my self. My husband was happy with the opportunity of taping my body up to make a duct tape fitting assistant. (We made it based on the website I previously mentioned in one of my posts.) Here are some pictures of work in progress. We used up two t shirts, since the one I had was not long enough to cover my butt. I also used a sleeve to extend the neck higher up. Basically, we started with taping around my chest and then crossing the tape in the middle to delineate the "curves". After that we did the bottom first, first taping horizontally, then vertically and last one more layer horizontally. Then we taped the top. At times it seemed a little claustrophobic, but I managed to stand still long enough. The whole project took us about 45 min. When done, he cut the cast open in the back and I weaseled out of it. One of the pictures shows the cut just started on the bottom before we went all the way up. Then all I had to do was to patch up the cut in the back, cover up the openings around arms and neck and stuff it. Since we are moving in a year, I just rigged the stuffing and stand. I stuffed with plastic bags, news paper, and bubblewrap. There is a hanger on the top, in case I need to hang it up, but I used a scrap piece of wood from the garage down the middle and a cardboard box for the stand. You could also use a Christmas tree stand for the leg. The end product- well maybe not the most sophisticated looking model, but it works for now. I figure when we move, I'll unstuff it and fold it into a cardboard box.

Let me know if you need any other details! :)